Emerald Spire 22.0 - Flimsy Construction
The group, following Vibol, went deeper into the caverns. The heat was exhausting and only got worse as they progressed. At once, the tunnel widened into a large cave bisected by a river of lava. The air was thick and rancid, and the four mulled over the safety of the natural stone bridge that was the only way to cross the river of molten rock. Vibol urged them to hurry, pointing up. Kormon managed to pick out the shapes of elementals formed from the sulfurous gases in the room, hovering lazily near the ceiling. The longer they stood, the more aggressive the elementals seemed to look, so the five scuttled quickly across the bridge, finding that it indeed held steady. The only way forward was through an ever-narrowing tunnel that seemed to act as a vent: the air pushing against them was sickening, and only got worse. By the point that Marin and Vibol had to push and crawl single-file, they were stopped by an orange ooze that had partially blocked the tunnel end. Marin quickly found that this corrosive sludge could eat through his gauntlets and it reached towards him and Vibol in a lazy attempt to absorb them. The group pulled back, unsure of how to deal with the sludge that would certainly destroy their equipment and shrug off their magic. As they postulated, Korman hear something heavy moving beyond the stone wall to his right. Putting his hand on it, he determined that the wall there was very thin. Meanwhile, Ismail cast Shape Stone, drawing a thin yet solid barrier across the narrow tunnel and sealing the ooze away. With their way forward blocked, the group resolved to break through the thin wall to their right. As they chipped and hammered, Kormon heard the noise again, this time getting louder. He yelled for everyone to back away and as they reached the mouth of the tunnel leading back towards the elementals, something slammed into the wall. As they watched, a massive grey render, a thick-headed, brutish humanoid beast, smashed through. Ismail recognized the creature and warned against it: they weren't bright, but they were aggressive and very powerful. The creature charged towards them and they ran back towards the lava river. Kormon and Marin stood at the base of the bridge, urging Ismail, Amara and Vibol across. Marin dodged its powerful swings as they tried to figure out the best way to kill the beast, before the lazy elementals decided to float down and join the fray. Too large to easily shove, they tossed about ideas. Finally, they settled on a course of action. Yelling in Fiernan, a language shared by most monsters of even slight intelligence, Ismail successfully cast Command, forcing the render to flee back through the tunnel it had come through. Marin and Kormon dashed across the bridge to join the others so that Amara could cast Magic Missile to weaken the already-cracked portions of the bridge. With a great swing, Kormon finished destabilizing it and the group pulled back, leaving only Kormon near the entrance to bait the creature when it returned. It came storming back seconds later and when it saw Kormon, it didn't hesitate to run for him. When it stepped on the bridge the rock gave out beneath it, sending the monster crashing through a third elemental that had been drifting there and into the lava. The doomed render quickly burned to death as the furious haze creature assaulted it. The party considered retreating but Vibol implored them not to. With a bit of resignation, the group agreed to proceed, successfully jumping across the narrowest part of the river that they could find and hustling back to the far tunnel as the surly elementals eyed them. Category:Emerald Spire